Jain Journal 2000 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 21

SEKHAR : "GIVE AWAY VIOLENCE, PRESERVE LIFE"
177 dissuades his sons from a life of austerities, the sons reply to him, 'if the whole world and all treasures were yours you would still not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. Whenever you die, O King, and leave all pleasant things behind, the law alone and nothing else in this world, will save you a monarch.79
It is easier for a monk to lead a life with frugal means. The life style of a mendicant provides austerity measures. An individual may be weak and slip back into his old ways80 but by assisting one another the mendicants would strengthen one another's efforts. The mendicants' way of life has provided rules for begging food, clothes, couch, bowl and it also regulates the possession of a mendicant.81 A householder, on the other hand, is in the midst of a world with vast differences in attitude and hehaviour. When the worldly ways pose a challenge to a life of Dharma and Moksa, a householder is at a loss to balance between needs and wants, between extremes of life.
5.3 Attachment and dominence
The word Parigraha refers to possession and private ownership. Aparigraha is an attitude of detachment, and in the economic realm it may mean non-obsession with material things or, simply, nonpossession. Aparigraha, besides being a vrata or vow, is an attitude
d specifically toward the material universe. Implicit in the vow is the great reverence to the autonomy of the material universe. What we call wealth, possessions and the pleasures, outside one's self. They may be meant for oneself but does not really belong to the self. This basic understanding comes from the idea that Jīva or the self is identical only with consciousness and all others like pleasures, activity, etc. are extraneous to it. This is the quintessence of Jaina philosophy. Hence, in order to attain the objective of life, namely, the realization of the true self devoid of all that is extraneous to it, Aparigraha or the vow of detachment and non-possession is proposed. Aparigraha clarifies the vision regarding the true nature of the self and, at the same time, to respect the autonomy of the material universe.
A question arises whether it is really possible for embodied beings to be detached from the empirical world. Jaina tradition says that it is
79. Uttarādhyayanasūtra, ibid. 14. 39-40. 80. Paul Carus, ibid. Ch. 17, verse 2. 82. Daśavaikālikasūtra, 6.20, Ārya Sayyambhava, tr. and notes by K.C.
Lalwani, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1973.